Photographs in an album, children and the elderly, the peace signs people flash at the camera, figures seen from behind — a photobook that presents the fundamental allure and mystery of photography through images touched with a quiet wistfulness.

Sasebo, the port town on Japan's western edge where the artist was born, and Tokyo, where he now lives. In the ordinary, everyday life of both places, he searches out the very essence of what a photograph is.

In an age when everyone takes photographs as a matter of course, this book asks anew: Why do people take photographs? What makes a good photograph? What does it mean to take one at all?